Benning soldiers charged in motel gang rape

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 7, 2007 6:39:59 EST

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Three soldiers were held without bond after being charged with raping a 21-year-old woman at a motel as they yelled “hoo-ah” and high-fived each other.

A fourth soldier was granted a bond of $5,000 Monday.

The four, all from Fort Benning, were arrested Saturday after a woman said she was gang raped the previous night at a Super 8 Motel, police Lt. John McMichael said.

Justin Brummett, 22, of Emporia, Kan., was charged with rape, false imprisonment and aggravated sodomy, and Steven Krienke, 20, of Federal Way, Wash., and Aanoalii Filoialii, 23, of Tacoma, Wash., were each charged with rape and aggravated sodomy, McMichael said.

Clint Martz, 20, of Fort Benning, was charged with sexual battery and burglary.

All pleaded not guilty Monday and their cases were bound over to Superior Court. McMichael said they claimed the sex was consensual.

Fort Benning officials had no comment late Monday.

The woman told The Ledger-Enquirer newspaper she met the soldiers in the motel lobby Friday evening and one invited her to a party in his room but she refused. The soldiers told her they had graduated from basic training Friday morning, she said.

About 9 p.m., she said, she found Martz in her room going through her purse and told him to leave. About 30 minutes later, a second soldier came to her door and asked if he could speak with her and apologize for his friend’s actions.

She said she went with him to his room to talk, and he pushed her into the bathroom and raped her. Then others came in and attacked her, she said.

“They were rotating, doing different stuff to me. They were laughing and high-fiving each other. There’s an Army word, ‘hoo-ah,’ they kept saying. I was screaming, but the stereo was so loud.”

The woman repeatedly cried “no” and “leave me alone,” but the assault continued, with men walking in and out of the room, but no one intervened, she said.

Ellie